LOTOS secures EU funding for hydrogen fuelling infrastructure

Grupa LOTOS and LOTOS Paliwa will obtain EU funding for their project to construct hydrogen purification and distribution units and two hydrogen refuelling points (in Gdansk and Warsaw, Poland) as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

The project, worth almost €10 million, is to be placed in service in 2021.

The ‘Pure H2’ project submitted by LOTOS was placed on the list of projects approved by EU member states in late September and supported as part of the CEF instrument (specifically in the 2017 CEF Transport Blending MAP Call II). This means that almost €2 million, i.e. approximately 20% of the project budget, will be provided by the EU.

The objective of the project is to launch the sale of ultra-high purity hydrogen (99.999%) which could be used primarily as a fuel in public transport vehicles. Hydrogen allows vehicles to cover the distance of as much as 450 km without the need for additional charging. The use of hydrogen also makes it possible to spend less on additional power grid infrastructure.

The project envisages the construction of a hydrogen purification unit at the Gdansk refinery and a hydrogen sale and distribution station in the immediate vicinity of the LOTOS Group’s plant, as well as two refuelling points in Gdansk and Warsaw.

The company considers the project a long-term one, as confirmed by the letters of intent signed between the company and the municipalities of Gdynia and Wejherowo. Both documents provide for the supply of hydrogen to power buses with fuel cells.

At present, the LOTOS refinery in Gdansk produces about 13 tph of hydrogen, and its hydrogen output will exceed 16.5 tph once LOTOS’s Effective Refining Project is completed. The average passenger car consumes 1 kg of hydrogen per 100 km, while during the entire year a hydrogen bus consumes the amount of hydrogen produced by LOTOS units within one hour. Those quantities refer to hydrogen that has not yet been purified – hence the need for a purification unit.